While the global quarantine has now become a historical moment, the consequences of COVID – politically as well as medically – are still ongoing. So now I’m curious; how has post-quarantine affected your cultural consumption? I, for example, am still a bit wary of bringing plagues in as a plot device to things like my D&D games, mostly because I’m already exhausted by the tired COVID jokes I know for a fact my players would make. I like being surprised, and one of the big downsides of a collective memory is how predictable the world can be. Although I have to admit, saying that out loud actually makes me want to do it specifically so I can make the dumb COVID jokes.

On the other hand, while I don’t seek out plague-based media, I do find myself reacting to it differently. I’m still kind of averse to media that reminds me of being quarantined – so your classic ‘bottle episode’ setup has become kind of frustrating to me – but plague as a plot device ends up fascinating me. I recently played A Plague Tale: Innocence and could recognise the fear of corroding and sick bodies; the plague itself is transmitted by rat bites rather than the air, but the principle is much the same.

It’s also made me more accepting of cartoonishly selfish or self-deluding characters in fiction; your classic example is the guy who gets bitten by a zombie and then doesn’t tell anybody. In general, it turns out bad B-movie villains and random douchebags that show up to slow our protagonists down are actually a pretty accurate demonstration of how a lot of people act. I’m more open-minded about a lot of seemingly weak characterisation for this reason, actually.

How have your viewing habits changed after COVID?